


Everyone Loves a Stalker

by cocaptainrodimus (wellisntthatshiny)



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mostly out of respect, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 16:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18626785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellisntthatshiny/pseuds/cocaptainrodimus
Summary: The mech re-emerges several blocks away as it creeps into a small apartment. The room is bare except one wall where a meticulous screen display shows a candid photo of the shop owner walking down a street, his mouth open in a sarcastic retort to his presumed companion. Alongside the image are neatly organized, unmarked folders of information in columns.





	Everyone Loves a Stalker

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vaderade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaderade/gifts).



> EMFEREC: Tiny shadowplay agent who turns into an EMP looking to get out and make their own way in the world  
> Vandal: vaderade ‘s delightful rowdy boy and paranoid mess; local expert on defense and all things anti establishment

A barely visible frame slips through the imposing bars of the scaffolding surrounding barely begun renovations picking its way through the piles of unstable metal. The mech slowly scales the structure, optics scanning the shadowed alley for witnesses before pushing a loose sheet of metal aside as it creeps in through a newly exposed crack in the building’s crumbling walls.  
It moves across the empty building with an uncanny silence and takes up a careful position along the opposite wall, practiced digits quickly unlatching a hidden panel to reveal an access port, the circuits glowingly dimly in the dark room. No light emits from the mech as it leans in, a single digit cracking open to unspool a cable that is quickly connected to the array of wires nestled in the building’s access panels.

Several screens pop up from the mech’s wrist display and it quickly swipes each frame of security footage aside until only three remain. 

In the first is the alley the mech used for entry and several slow moments pass as it carefully edits the footage removing itself from each frame. It replays the clip over until it reaches a pristine image of an undisturbed site. 

The mech nods sharply to itself and the second screen is pushed aside for the third, the mech carefully examining the nearly still images of an empty street. Just the edge of the construction site is visible and the mech watches through again and again until it seems to accept its results.

It returns to the second screen expanding the footage with a swipe of its fingers until the holotape plays nearly as large as the mechs frame. This angle faces away from the site and down the street towards a mix of residential and business properties. The mech zooms the footage in towards a single building, a small garage lit by a neon sign pronouncing it closed. A large roller door with no windows marks the somewhat official entrance to the shop, but the mechs attention is captured by the narrower, equally windowless door to the left. 

The footage is grainy and blurred to begin with and the smaller door is nearly imperceptible without knowing to look. The paint is the same color as the surrounding wall and it seems any semblance of a true frame has been removed for discretion. The mech plays the nearly forty hours of footage on a high speed rewind before it paused and allows the tape to play at a much slower speed. A different mech is standing at the door, clearly going through a series of motions none of which are clearly visible through the low quality camera. This new figure is much taller and broader than his observer with a pronounced metal protrusion from his helm and even through the low quality camera there is noticeable damage to the side of his head. The mech glances around and tries to hide his actions with his frame but his practiced movements give a clear indication of his ownership of the building. The mech’s eyes narrow in on the now looping footage of the door and it fast forwards again until the owner of the garage emerges, watching as he locks the door behind him before walking down the street.

The mech continues with this for the entire forty hours of footage carefully pulling each frame of the owner at the door. It takes the footage and splices it together, grainy images beginning to form a somewhat clearer picture as the mech painstakingly edits pixel by pixel of each repeated step until it has two fifteen second loops. The first loop now clearly shows the apparent shop owner at the door, digits deftly pushing and swiping over certain areas on, around, and seemingly inside the door and surrounding wall before finally turning the handle and entering. The second loop shows the reverse as the figure checks whatever is installed before finally leaving. 

The dark figure stands and disconnects from the wall, cable silently respooling into its digit. The tip snaps back into place with a soft click and the mech straightens up to its full height. It cycles through the opening loop, it’s right hand mirroring the movements of the figure in the video again and again until they’re in perfect synchrony. It’s eyes glow bright in triumph and it approaches the exit in the scaffolding, prying the metal aside once more. Light is beginning to creep over the horizon and the mech is careful to stick to the shadowed edges of the alley as it creeps from one blind spot to the next before disappearing entirely into the last moments of darkness. 

The mech re-emerges several blocks away as it creeps into a small apartment. The room is bare except one wall where a meticulous screen display shows a candid photo of the shop owner walking down a street, his mouth open in a sarcastic retort to his presumed companion. Alongside the image are neatly organized, unmarked folders of information in columns. The mech walks up to the display and attaches the same wire from his digit, dragging the new files from his wrist display into the folder three down and two from the left. The folder opens to reveal dozens of scans nearly identical to the new additions and the mech slowly examines each before nodding sharply and pulling up another display. The screen shifts and a three dimensional rendering of the building, its doors, and the shop owner appears alongside a loading bar as the new footage is uploaded into the program. The mech cocks its head impatiently even as the program alerts that the simulation has been updated.

The mechs black frame stills during the first loop as the simulation shows each movement of the owner entering the door. It remains still for the second, third, and fourth loops. On the fifth loop the mech once again mirrors the simulation, each digit carefully mimicking the mech on the screen over imagined sensors again and again until the mech is satisfied with a perfect performance. 

The mech shuts down the screen and walks over to a small recharge slab tucked away in the corner of the room. The sheet of metal is barely larger than its frame as it reclines and shuts down its optics. Tonight would be it’s first attempt.


End file.
